5 reasons your socialmedia marketingis wasting your time

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If you’re on social media but aren’t doing it right, you’re wasting a powerful way to build your brand, drive lead acquisition and grow and engaged community.

You need to deliver the right content, on the right platforms, in the right way and parallel to your larger marketing plan.

Are your resources best spent on social media or on your core business?

If you’re not doing social media right or are yet to create your presence, your business is missing out on a golden lead generation and customer experience service for your business.

45% of businesses have stated that jumping on social media has reduced their costs, increased their revenue by 24% and improved customer satisfaction by 50%. In fact, Quick Sprout shares that social media’s ‘leads to close’ chances are higher by 100% in comparison to outbound marketing.*

Many of the businesses we meet have created their social media presence, but aren’t getting the traction they desire. Much of the time, they are making one of these five mistakes:

1. You’re delivering content and hoping for the best.

Social media sites are one of the first spaces we review when we welcome new clients to the tribe, closely followed by websites. It’s such an important platform to have interesting and consistent content that is engaging, offers two-way connection (a mistake we see many businesses do) and is brand building.

However, we see so many people make the mistake of sharing content without any real understanding of how the actions and messaging work with the broader business’ objective. Strategy should form the basis of any marketing activity you do, no matter your business.

2. You are on the wrong platforms for your business.

From Facebook and LinkedIn to Renren (popular in China) and vk.com (popular in Europe), each social media space has its own specific purpose, way of working and, as a result, requires a unique approach to conversation and content sharing.

The spaces your business should be present in comes down to your target audience and goals. At Tribe Hunter, we do an initial analysis of where your business is already being spoken about, what people are saying, how they are finding your website from social media and where your resources are best placed to achieve the best results.

3. You haven’t embraced the benefits of advertising.

Social ad spending is expected to exceed $65billion this year and represent 16% of all digital ad spending globally.** Why? Because it works!

Advertising through sites like Facebook is not only a low-cost option, it gives you the power to test your adverts organically before any spend, allows you to target your audience down to their love of camping or herbal teas and let’s you tailor your budget to the amount you would like to spend per lead.

Just remember, a great advertising strategy should work parallel with an engaging and interesting marketing presence on and off social media.

4. You are doing too much or too little.

It’s difficult to find the balance between spamming and sharing so little content that your audience forgets you.

Each platform has its own optimal range for messages pushed per week. Just make sure you schedule your content for the best online time for your unique audience and provide useful and interesting content, rather than advertorial.

5. You’re wasting valuable resources trying to learn how to do it right.

Is your purpose in your business delivering results in the way that you do best or trying to work out which hashtags will prove most effective for your latest tweet?

Time is one of our most valued resources. Rather than waste yours figuring out how to use social media, hand that role to people that specialise in that area and have trust that they will deliver on your strategy and content plan without your day-to-day involvement.

Many people also speak to us about having their internal staff manage the business’ social media. What we find is that these individuals become so overwhelmed by the task of trying to understand the platforms and deliver messaging in the right way, that they lose sight of their other duties.

To remain one step ahead and unrivalled, your business should consider your current social media status or lack of, and determine whether your resources are best spent focused here or on your core business.